Ahliyah Williams

Dr. Hinks

5/27/19

Help Received: Anthropology and the Human Condition. References Ahliyah W.

 

        A Society Ahead of Their Time: The Ju/’Hoansi tribe

  Traditional cultures are studied by anthropologists to analyze the different ways of being human. There are many different beliefs, cultures, and traditions across the world. It would be impossible to try to compare different cultures to each other perfectly because of the levels of differentiation between them. Cultures change over time due to changes in economy and differentiation between gender roles which makes changes in politics, society, and even gender roles. Patrilineal and matrilineal cultures, two very different cultures in aspects of what gender kinship is sourced through, but also similar in the fact that women, in the end, are doing most of the work. Different cultures take different approaches to the same thing that many people may think are weird or unhuman like, but to the same culture may be the only way of surviving their daily life.

 

Economy, in terms of production, is shared equally within the Ju/’Hoansi men and women of Botswana and Namibia tribes. When the Ju/’Hoansi people were still hunter-gatherers, which they no longer are because food and water are very limited in the 20th century, there was not just men hunting and putting their life at risk, women gathered vegetables that men survived on. They weren’t required to ask for permission from the men to go out or for making food. The Ju/’Hoansi “valued the sexes nearly equally”, says the Department of Anthropology. Another aspect of the Ju/ ‘Hoansi tribe is their strong belief in equality between girls and boys with sex. Everyone has been through or heard at some point in their life from a girl, “How can HE just get off the hook like that?” The boy or brother in the family usually gets off the hook for doing the same exact thing as a girl, usually practiced in America. So when it comes to the topic of sex in America vs in the Ju/’Hoansi tribe, there is a clear distinction. When a boy loses his virginity in America, he gets a high five, but a girl probably gets a high possibility of being shunned by her family. In the Ju/’Hoansi tribe females and males are so equal that they do not hold significant value to the concept of virginity. Boys and girls in the tribe lose their virginity as young as fifteen years old.

 

The Ju’ Hoansi tribe has changed significantly over time. Not saying that any of these changes were bad, but actually may be the best in order to adjust to the modern, current world. What’s changed you may ask? Well, colonialism and urbanization have been two major reasons for their change. Their “simple and careless” lifestyles in the 1960s compared to their hard, poverty flourished lives now in the 21st century tells a long story of their transformed lives. The relevance of outsider threats has tarnished the close-knit community into a vulnerable tribe. One of those things including HIV/AIDS. As I stated in the previous paragraph of how free the Ju/’Hoansi people were with sex, that quickly stopped with the spread of HIV/ AIDS. Free- sexuality was something that gave the tribe expression and differentiation. Another influence on their change was the introduction of government in 1963. Before political power exchanges were based on relationships between people. With government, not until the 90s, was schools, hospitals, and other government official buildings put into place. This changing the tribe into the more westernized tribe it is today.  

 

When comparing the Ju/‘Hoansi tribe to America, there is a clear distinction between the different customs, tradition, and social norms. All of those which changed both places forever. One of the most significant changes was of men and women. In American gender roles of men and women were mostly changed due to industrialization. In the Ju/ ‘Hoansi tribe, gender roles were changed by many factors, military power. In 1979 a South African army set up a military base spreading through northern Namibia, where the Ju/ ‘Hoansi people were located. This is where gender roles began to take place. Unlike what it used to be, willing and able MEN only joined forces together to hunt. The evolution of gender roles in America was quite the opposite. Unlike the declining inequality of men and women of the Ju/ ‘Hoansi tribe, in America, equality became stronger within men and women. There were three significant stages of this transformation. The first stage started as far back as the Victorian era. This was arguably the most strict when it came to gender roles. Financially women made little to none because their only job was to be a housewife or work in health care, which sometimes could be free labor. The next era was the industrial stage. The roles of men and women in America took a complete 360. Women were now the laborers that were working in factories and mines in the majority over men. This was because women were on average smaller and it was found easier for them to maneuver around the factories. This actually took a lot of business from men, but still, women were being paid significantly less than men that did the same job. Whilst men were laboring in factories, men were being their own bosses working as a blacksmith, farmers, etc. Lastly, in the modern era, you see female doctors, entrepreneurs, and even astronauts. Something that a century ago, wouldn’t even be thought of. The improvement of gender equality has improved significantly, but nevertheless, women are still being paid less than men, something that with the trend that has been going on so long, may never stop.

 

Patrilineal society being those which kinships or descent is traced through the male line. An example of this society is within Sub-Saharan African families. Those of which belief in polygamy, when a man is allowed to have multiple wives at the same time. In patrilineal societies, marriages are taken seriously and the bond between the husband and wife is to be taken seriously. In a patrilineal, since men own kinship, they have much more power over the women in societies. Women do cooking and cleaning for the men since they are seen as superior. It would be hard for even a divorced woman in these societies to start her life again. Now looking at the true matrilineal culture, the Mosuo of China, “where women rule”. Matrilineal societies, where kinship is based on female lines. Chinese women most likely feel most free here. Unlike Sub- Saharan African patrilineal societies, women may have relationships with multiple men at a time, just like men, even when married sometimes. Women still have to carry much responsibility, but most of the responsibility is for themselves, or other women, not a man. There is strong belief upon the Mosuo culture that women should be on top and ahead to keep things running smoothly. Although there are some similarities with these two kinships like women are still working hard, there is a big difference in the purpose they are working hard.

 

Finally, the Ju/ ‘Hoansi originally tribe lived in an egalitarian hunter-gatherer culture for many years until the effects of economic, political, and social change in society. Due to those factors, it was very necessary to change their lifestyles to adapt to modern centuries. Being that traditional cultures have different beliefs in tradition, gender roles and society gives anthropologists a new way of approaching every culture. Patrilineal and matrilineal cultures are two societies which live up to different gender beliefs. Both of these are still practiced today. America has the most distinction between all of the cultures being one of the countries that practice various cultures and beliefs instead of just one universal culture. When considering the lifestyles of these societies it is most important to also consider that those people lives are dependent on continuing to live the way they have for so long before.



References

NCBI. The Household, Kinship, and Community Context. Factors Affecting Contraceptive Use in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ohio History Central. Women in The Industrial Workforce. Ohio History Connection.

Stevan Harrell. PATRILINY, PATRIARCHY, PATRIMONY: SURFACE FEATURES AND DEEP STRUCTURES IN THE CHINESE FAMILY SYSTEM. Faculty Washington.

Mia Bush. (2016). US Women Make Strides Toward Equality, But Work Remains. VOAnews.

The The Ju|’hoansi People. The Peoples of The World Foundation.

James Suzman. (2017). When a 200,000-Year-Old Culture Encountered the Modern Economy. The Atlantic.

Ju/’ Hoansi People Today. Anthropology and The Human Condition.

James Suzman. (2017) The Changing World of the Ju/ ‘Hoansi Bushmen in Pictures. The Guardian.

Woman in the Victorian Era. Wikipedia

Ju/’ Hoansi. Peaceful Societies Department of Anthropology.. College of Arts and Societies.

The Land Where Women Rule: Inside China’s Last Matriarchy.